The first task addressed by the TMGC was development of a USA/Canada resource sharing formula for the transboundary resources of cod, haddock and yellowtail flounder on Georges Bank. The 3-5 December 2001 meeting of TMGC in Halifax, Nova Scotia arrived upon an agreed allocation sharing proposal that they recommended to administrators
Guidance on Options for Determining Percentage of Resource Share. As with any negotiated settlement, the agreed proposal is a compromise. The USA and Canada reached consensus to use 5Zjm as the management unit for cod and haddock, apply a responsive smoothing procedure, employ the average of 3 surveys for yellowtail flounder and haddock and the average of 2 seasons for cod, base landings on the 1967-1994 time period and incorporate a fixed 7-year transition schedule. As an additional consideration, as part of the sharing agreement, the USA and Canada reconfirmed that the two countries develop a common fishing mortality based harvest strategy for the shared management units.